This analysis is intended to improve understanding of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) perceptions regarding manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) and the PLA's efforts to integrate autonomous systems into air operations. These insights into China's MUM-T capabilities can inform the Department of the Air Force's operational planning, enhance interoperability with allied forces, and guide investment in relevant technologies.

The People's Liberation Army's Approach to Manned-Unmanned Teaming

Theory and Practice

Shanshan Mei

ResearchPublished Aug 12, 2025

Cover: The People's Liberation Army's Approach to Manned-Unmanned Teaming
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As the Department of the Air Force (DAF) accelerates its testing of manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) concepts and further integrates the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program into operations against highly capable adversaries, it is critical for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and DAF planners, strategists, and analysts to better understand Chinese perspectives and similar lines of effort to integrate autonomous systems into air operations. Additionally, understanding China's approach to MUM-T can help the DAF anticipate and counter adversarial tactics, ensuring that U.S. forces maintain a strategic advantage in the foreseeable future.

The analysis presented in this report is intended to improve the DAF's understanding of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) perceptions regarding MUM-T and the PLA's efforts to integrate autonomous systems into air operations. These insights into China's MUM-T capabilities can inform the DAF's operational planning, enhance interoperability with allied forces, and guide investment in relevant technologies.

Key Findings

  • The PLA assesses that MUM-T will be a defining feature of future combat activities involving intelligent systems and is in the nascent stages of developing operational concepts to integrate MUM-T into its existing doctrine.
  • Since 2015, the PLA has monitored developments in U.S. MUM-T concepts and technologies to identify U.S. vulnerabilities and develop countermeasures.
  • As of early 2025, the PLA appears to be taking a different approach to MUM-T than the U.S. Air Force, focusing more on enhancing software and algorithms to enable unmanned systems to support and augment manned platforms. While both militaries prioritize cost-effective CCA-type capabilities, the PLA emphasizes augmentation over advanced teaming, which demands greater autonomy for unmanned systems.
  • The PLA is in the nascent stages of developing operational concepts to integrate MUM-T.
  • PLA writings emphasize the importance of reinforcing the wartime party committee's role under manned-unmanned collaborative combat conditions. Finding the right balance between autonomation and political control likely will remain a challenge in the near future.

Recommendations

  • DoD and the DAF should leverage red-teaming analysis to develop tailored strategic messaging around the U.S. research, development, and acquisition of MUM-T capabilities.
  • The DAF should use MUM-T and CCA development to inject "conceal and reveal" strategies into capability development.
  • The PLA is poised to accelerate its adoption and integration of more autonomous systems into military operations in the next decade. Accordingly, in addition to platform capabilities, the DAF should direct or designate relevant intelligence components to focus on the analysis of PLA organization, doctrine, and training in assessments of PLA MUM-T capabilities.
  • DoD and the DAF should make a concerted and targeted effort with allies, partners, and the defense industrial base to significantly boost the protection of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • As the DAF stands up the Integrated Capabilities Command, it should ensure that its intelligence cell — augmented by China specialists — actively monitors, analyzes, and informs the command's acquisition activities on the PLA's electromagnetic warfare and information warfare capabilities.
  • The DAF should better understand the PLA's insecurity about political control under complex combat conditions, which are increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and unmanned systems, to develop tailored concepts of employment for CCA.

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Mei, Shanshan, The People's Liberation Army's Approach to Manned-Unmanned Teaming: Theory and Practice. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3906-1.html.
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The research described in this report was prepared for the Department of the Air Force and conducted by the Strategy and Doctrine Program within RAND Project AIR FORCE.

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